We’re owners of a croft!

Yesterday we received confirmation from our Skye solicitors that we’re at last confirmed as owners of the croft!

Never before has a small patch of permafrost in Scotland caused so much excitement.

It’s been a five month journey to get to this point and it feels so good to have reached this milestone. I can sense the slightly bemused expressions of friends, family, and passing strangers, but what we’ve bought isn’t just a patch of land. It’s a promise of a completely new way of life, which we are so ready for.

Now, as the snow settles on the fields we can start the real work … registering the croft, designing a house, securing planning permission, building an access track, groundwork, utilities connection, planning the land use, tree planting… so much to do.

I know that there will be frustrations, tears, hard work, midges and compromises along the way, but there will also be joy and a sense of achievement as we move through these things.

And fresh air, trees, sea, bees, dark skies, peace, space and wellies. After a lifetime of cities you can’t imagine the pull of all of these things.

One day soon we will wake up to sunrise over the Knoydart hills and start our other lives.

Congratulations. A small miracle to get all the paperwork done in under 12 months. For the next bit you will need the patience of Job, the hide and belligerence of a rhino and the will power to move mountains; and that is just for a start. However, if you’re a pragmatic realist the joy and smiles will be worth it. I’m sure you will succeed, I’ll be watching your progress with interest and cheering from the sidelines.
I can see the very snowy Cullins from the Hebridean riveria this morning, revealed by a very rosy, frosty dawn. Heaven!

A monumental milestone achieved, one that is going to change your journey in life forever and what an epic and exciting journey this is going to be.
Huge congratulations, I know you will face every challenge with a bag full of optimism and enjoy every moment of success with celebration.
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” St Francis of Assisi
Enjoy every moment x

D > In the past there was only a very narrow range of possibilities for ‘success’ in crofting. Now the possibilities are only limited vision, passion, determination, the lack of which is the reason for so many neglected crofts.